The hot summer has arrived some time ago and the little dew collected on the night of Saint John's Day was a clear symptom of this situation.
The little water that fell during the winter did not reach the deep layers of the soil, causing a consequent state of prolonged stress to plants that are normally able to defend themselves from drought by pushing their roots deep.
We have all noticed the abundant presence of aphids (plant lice), the parasites that have taken the most advantage of the state of plant suffering and the consequent appearance on a large scale of ladybugs that have lavish feasted (ladybugs are voracious predators of aphids), together with hoverflies (small insects recognizable by the livery similar to wasps but smaller in size).
While on the one hand this phenomenon has shown us how nature can rebalance populations, on the other hand, the lack of water in the deep layers has led to reduced production (including, for example, smaller potatoes) also linked to the scarce availability of oxygen at the radical level.
Those who knew how to dose irrigation water had good feedback and were able to defend the seedlings from the great heat, what should certainly make us think is the enormous amount of water that is being used to produce corn (just follow any road that runs along the fields), in some cases destined for energy biomass (livestock sewage will be introduced into the tanks for the production of biogas and the obtaining of energy)... While in some areas vegetable plants intended for men cannot be irrigated due to a lack of available water, in other areas cubic meters of water are used to make electricity, drugged by public contributions that we all pay...
It is difficult to prepare now for autumn-winter crop transplants without ignoring this, but in the meantime we are here to put down the cardoons, the leeks, in a few weeks cabbage, cabbage, radicchi, broccoli...
Meanwhile, we continue to harvest melons, salads, eggplants, cucumbers, lettuces, potatoes, to harvest cereals and to continue the fight against weeds.
